Just-Auto reports the automaker welcomed the UAW’s withdrawal from the fight, proclaiming that it could now move forward with its tasks of building cars in Chattanooga, securing jobs in Tennessee, and establishing a new form of what it calls “co-determination” within the United States:

Volkswagen Chattanooga is seeking to establish good opportunities for consultation and representation for all its employees, opportunities that are normal practice for the Volkswagen team all over the world – that applies for those employees who voted against the UAW – just as it applies for those who voted in favour.

As for the UAW, outgoing president Bob King said the union was finally ready to “put the tainted election” behind it, while Senator Bob Corker proclaimed the challenge to the results and subsequent withdrawal as “nothing more than a sideshow to draw away from their stinging loss in Chattanooga.”

The German union demands a works council. In the US some say that requires a labor union altho others say the law is unclear and the Feds could waive it and let a works council form w/o a union. With the current regime that seems unlikely.

TN should not offer VW anything because if I were to bet on a future scenario it would be that TN approves the handouts, the plant is built and then VW recognizes the union w/o a vote. The workforce would then be irreparably splintered and the whole operation will fail like Westmoreland did.

And that is what IG Metal wants. They got the head of the TN plant manager after the collusion scheme failed. He’s back in Germany.

It makes sense that the German union would demand a works council. The US is already a low-wage manufacturer compared to Germany. The lower the wages are in the US, the more incentive there is to move production out of Germany.

I understand what you’re saying, as well as conslaw’s comment, but what’s in it for the company? Is IG Metall so powerful that they can induce VW to cut its own throat, or at least throw away a huge investment in plant and equipment? Even with tax benefits and other state of Tennessee giveaways, it’s still a losing proposition for the company. There’s got to be more to it.

Dear Senator Corker,
We still await the announcement of the second line that you said was coming if/when the UAW vote went the “right way”. Now that the UAW has dropped its appeal of the results of the February vote, there is nothing standing in the way of this announcement… except for the possibility that you made up the whole thing.